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aselley
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  • RMweb Gold

DC or DCC doesn't make much difference on the dead/ live frog thing. If you're mostly running 4 and 6 wheel steam engines at low speeds then you'll really see the benefits of live frog. All wheel pickup bogie diesels or higher speeds and you won't see so much benefit.

So if I was building your layout I would use live frogs.

 

I have spent the afternoon (on this side of the world) online researching just that. It's good to have what I found ratified by someone here...ok time to put in an order, and prepare the board for new track.  :banghead: But better to find out now, and not after I did the ballast.

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  • RMweb Gold

So while I wait for the new points and track to arrive, I decided to start on the quay portion of my harbour.

 

post-33869-0-21790700-1522205331_thumb.jpg

 

Will's embossed plastic sheets form the main parts of the quay wall, and the joints will be hidden behind timber supports. The small step on the left will form a loading section which will be accessed by either a ladder or some rough stone stairs.

 

So while waiting for glue to dry I came to the realisation this hobby does have a lot of waiting and waiting, especially for glue to dry.  :jester:

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So while waiting for glue to dry I came to the realisation this hobby does have a lot of waiting and waiting, especially for glue to dry.  :jester:

 

Hi Anthony,

 

waiting for glue to dry can be good!  Givers you time to do something else, such as a bit of painting, making a kit, more research or just having a brew and contemplating what you've done and what's to do next!

 

Roja

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • RMweb Gold

It’s been 3 weeks since I decided to ditch the code 100 insulfrogs and go code 75 electrofrogs, much of the time which has been spent at first waiting for the postman, and then secondly teaching myself to solder. At this point I’m not sure which has proved the most trying...though I concede the later might prove more useful, the learning curve has been steep and thus far not too successful. So I’m glad I’m only destroying some old code 100 rails in my practice.

 

So given that I had the time, I decided to also revisit the layout plan, especially since Peco has some nice points that give options that don’t exist within the Hornby range.

 

I spent a lot of time on the old RMWeb forums looking at the layouts offered by Hugh Flynn, before deciding that his layout 25 (see here) was just about what I was looking for.

 

post-33869-0-85043300-1523598925.jpg

 

Close enough to my original design and yet utilising some of the suggestions from Phil (Harlequin) in a previous post on this thread. And so I now have this:

 

post-33869-0-01528900-1523598941.png

 

The station will sit on the far left along the curve, as for the rest of the planned buildings, I have some ideas to represent part of the village, and site the boat building shed at the front on the right where it can also serve as a scenic break.

 

Ok, back to learning to solder.

 

Hi Anthony,

 

waiting for glue to dry can be good!  Givers you time to do something else, such as a bit of painting, making a kit, more research or just having a brew and contemplating what you've done and what's to do next!

 

Roja

 

As long as the brew comes in a tool and icy glass it is a very welcome respite from the heat and humidity that is Singapore.

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  • RMweb Gold

Well the soldering was done. A case of a "poor tradesman blaming his tools" was both an apt and accurate description. A new Soldering Iron, so good solder and some good flux and job proved almost too easy. So while the wallet is lighter for the tools, at least I no longer have to replace destroyed points...or so I thought.

 

So I had all the points glued down, all the track as well, and I turned over the board to start on the wiring, and of course my project took 2 steps backwards...or if I choose to look at it in another light, it sent me back to school to learn some more lessons.

 

Clearly I am not gentle enough. (Though I must confess your honour I was being real gentle)

 

While wiring the points, on two of them, the frog wire fell out. Which is to say it snapped off the point, and this of course is the piece that is wired to the Cobalt motors to change polarity.

 

So I now have a quandary?

 

Is it better to,

  1. Just replace the points, which seems kind of wasteful. Even though "ripping it up" did do damage to the surrounding track work (though not the point), which will necessitate a bit of a bodge, when I replace it. Or,
  2. Is there a way to solder a dropper wire to the tracks directly like you do for power, when you convert the electro-point to DCC. I ask because, and this may be my lack of Google-Fu, I can't seem to see or find anyone else who has done this...though I doubt I am the first who has had this wire snap off.

I can also see why all the "guides" say getting the track right at the beginning is the key to layout success, since it's the track work part of the hobby that seems to dominate my learning curve. 

 

2 steps forward, sometimes 1 back, sometimes 3... :jester:  :jester:  :jester:

Edited by aselley
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